In recent years, there has been an increasing number of services for forming new friendships using community websites established on the Internet or other communication networks. Such services are referred to as social networking services (hereinafter referred to as “SNS services”). Characteristics such as name, address, birthday, hometown, alma mater (academic background), work (profession), email address, blood type, hobbies, preferred sports, and favorite foods are registered as attribute information of a user, and are used as an aid for forming new friendships.
With this SNS service, all or part of the attribute information is disclosed to other participants who have signed up for the SNS service and are forming friendships, by setting disclosure settings related to the attribute information registered during signup. The disclosure of attribute information facilitates the formation of new friendships when the range of the attribute information is increased, and when a greater amount of detail is registered, attribute information that is had in common is used as a connection that facilitates the formation of new and closer friendships.
SNS services are founded on the concept of building human networks based on existing human relationships and trusted relationships in the actual society of friends and acquaintances. Therefore, the registered attribute information must be factual as a condition for using an SNS service, as otherwise the human relationships and trusted relationships, i.e., the person-to-person connections, cannot be maintained.
Such an SNS service is a service that is accessed on a website as described above. Therefore, it is difficult to confirm personal identity using a driver license, passport, health insurance card, or the like as is performed by, e.g., financial institutions to open an account, or when purchasing a mobile phone, or in other such situations. Therefore, no form of personal identification is currently used.
As a result, pseudonyms and false information that do not match actual attribute information can be easily registered. Anonymity is maintained once false attribute information has been registered and it is not easy to identify the real person when misconduct has occurred. Therefore, by misusing the fact that the real person cannot be identified, users who carry out improper acts are sometimes permitted to slander and defame other people, to post vulgar images, or to carry out other improper activities that are contrary to good public conduct on the network service website.
There are also SNS services that cannot be used without an invitation from an existing participant who has previously registered attribute information and become a member, and there are services in which any number of unspecified persons can freely participate. Additionally, the registration of users who carry out improper activities under a pseudonym cannot be effectively removed, and there is a risk that the safe and secure maintenance and expansion of friendship relationships cannot be guaranteed.
In view of the above, a method has been proposed (see Patent Document 1) as a way to prevent impersonated contracts and other improper activities has been proposed. In the method, a confirmation terminal of an affiliated store or a confirmation terminal device at a sales finance company where the customer is present is used for providing information required to confirm intent and personal identify of a contract signatory by establishing a connection via a communication line and simultaneously transceiving audio, video, and the like in two directions.
Although for a different purpose, there has also been proposed a method (see Patent Document 2) in which a member who is introducing a new member inputs predetermined details that include the name and email address of the person being introduced, and an email containing instructions is automatically sent to the mail box of the person being introduced on the basis of the email address. The person being introduced reads the instruction email, confirms the name and other information thus inputted, makes changes if there is an error, and then adds attribute details such as address, telephone number, work address, and family.
However, the method described in Patent Document 1 is designed to prevent misconduct such as impersonation by a third party, and is not designed to prevent a person from registering false content with ill intent or the intention of carrying out improper activities.
Also, the method described in Patent Document 2 is designed so that a person can confirm and correct the details inputted by the person to be introduced, and is not designed to prevent a person from registering false content with ill intent or the intention of carrying out improper activities.
Techniques have thus been proposed for preventing misconduct such as impersonation by a third party. However, there is currently no proposed technique for preventing a person with ill intent from registering false content, and for guaranteeing the safe and secure maintenance and expansion of friendships with other participants.
[Patent Document 1] JP-A 2007-26154
[Patent Document 2] JP-A 2002-279124